I'll Cover You
by Michael Bunny Bunny
Summary: Basically I searched around and couldn't find any Percy Jackson musical fanfics, so I took it upon myself to make one. If you don't know some of the musicals, you can often skip over the chapters. The only ones that you kinda need to read I think are Maybe, Purpose, and As Long As You're Mine. So, yeah. Enjoy!
1. Maybe

It all started the day Leo decided that Camp Half-Blood should have a musical four times a year. Once he got the idea, he was completely set on it. He went to Chiron and appealed to Mr. D (who, being the god of theatre, approved of the idea) and then, not a few weeks later, audition notices were posted for the musical 'Annie.' I, of course, didn't audition. I was planning to take a trip back to the Underworld a few days after rehearsals started, so I couldn't have been in the show, even if I had wanted to.

I should probably mention now that my name is Nico diAngelo. I'm a son of Hades and kind of a loner. Well, more than kind of. I tend to avoid people a lot. Particularly people with dark, wavy hair, sea green eyes, rippling muscles, and you know what, let's just say that I don't talk to people very often. Nowadays, I even especially try to avoid certain blonde-haired blue-eyed sons of Jupiter named Jason, simply out of annoyance since the guy keeps trying to get me to talk to him. Unfortunately, avoiding him doesn't seem to work very well.

"Hey, Nico!" I sighed and turned around to look at Jason, irritatedly.

"What do you want, Grace?" I asked. Jason shrugged.

"Just wondering if you were gonna audition for the musical."

"Do I look like I sing?" I rolled my eyes at him. "Are you trying out, then?"

"Nah." He waved a hand. "I know a bunch of people who are, though. Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Julia, Clarisse, and Thalia are all auditioning." I probably should have mentioned earlier that Chiron decided to involve both demigod camps in this whole 'musical' business. The two camps are going to switch off who hosts the thing. The first one will be Camp Half-blood, but the next will be Camp Jupiter. "So what do you think the musical after this is gonna be?" Jason asked, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at me. I shrugged.

"Probably something weird." Jason gave me a look.

"Do you really not like musicals?"

"Look, I've never really had any experience with musicals. I've never even seen one." In truth, as a kid, I had always been interested in seeing them but I never actually got to go, which was disappointing.

"Dude, we're totally gonna see everyone in Annie, okay?" Jason grinned at me.

"Sure, whatever," I grumbled.

"Alright, it's a date!" Jason laughed. I turned scarlet.

"Wait but-" I spluttered. "You… You have a girlfriend!" Jason merely smiled.

"I was joking, Nico," he said. I glared at him.

"It wasn't funny," I huffed, turning to face away from him. He chuckled.

"Whatever. See you around!" And with that, he walked away. Finally.

"Nico, Nico, Nico!"

It was a few days after auditions and I turned around to see my half-sister, Hazel, running up to me, looking very excited. "Nico, Nico!"

"What is it?" I asked. She grinned at me.

"I-I got the lead! In the play! I'm Annie!" She looked positively ecstatic. I gave her a small smile, which is more of a smile than I usually give.

"That's great, Hazel. Good job." She grabbed my hand.

"Oh, you've got to come see the cast list, it's great!" She dragged me over to the amphitheater where a bulletin board had been set up. On the board was a notice, presumably the cast list.

ANNIE CAST LIST

Annie - Hazel Levesque

Miss Hannigan - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Oliver Warbucks - Frank Zhang

Grace - Annabeth Chase

"Rooster" Hannigan - Leo Valdez

Lily St. Regis - Piper McLean

Molly - Julia

Pepper - Clarisse La Rue

Duffy - Thalia Grace

I looked at the people on the list before looking at the characters. I probably wouldn't recognise any of them, as this 'Annie' was a modern-ish musical… Wait a moment.

"Oliver Warbucks… Is he… He's not… Annie…" I turned to Hazel. "Hazel, in this musical, does Annie call Oliver Warbucks 'Daddy Warbucks'?" I asked. Hazel grinned at me.

"Oh Nico, I forgot you've probably read the Little Orphan Annie comics, too!" I stared in disbelief at the cast list.

"They made a musical of Little Orphan Annie?..." I remembered, as a kid growing up in the 1930s, the comic strip 'Little Orphan Annie' appeared in the newspaper every week. The main character was Annie, and there was a rich man that she called 'Daddy' Warbucks.

"When I was reading the script at auditions, I almost couldn't believe it! I actually knew this story! Well, some of it, anyways. It's changed a lot."

"It has?" I asked. Hazel nodded.

"You'll see when you come see the show. That is… Are you coming to the show?" I nodded.

"I'm going with Jason," I replied. She smiled.

"You two are becoming quite close aren't you?" I tensed at her words.

"We're not-"

"I'm glad to see you making friends… It makes me happy.." I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…" Anything to make my sister happy….

"Hey, Nico, I'm gonna go tell the others." She smiled. I smiled back a bit. She really did seem happy. I nodded at her before watching as she scampered off to tell the rest of our friends the good news. As I began to walk back to my cabin, I found myself actually looking forward to seeing the show in a few weeks.

A few weeks later, I shadow-traveled back to camp in a panic. It's difficult to tell what day it is in the Underworld, so I was worried I had missed the show. As I started walking quickly around, trying to find someone to ask what date it was, I heard someone calling my name.

"Nico!"

I turned around. Jason was waving at me and smiling. Seeing that he had gotten my attention, he trotted over to me. "Nico, you're back!" He grinned. "So we're still on for the show tomorrow?"

"The show is tomorrow?" I asked. Jason nodded. "Thank the gods," I said, relieved. "I was worried I had missed it.." Jason shook his head.

"Nope. It's tomorrow evening. It's gonna be awesome. I snuck a look at the set. It's pretty cool." He looked at me. "So, we're still going together, yeah?" I sighed and nodded.

"I guess, yeah. As friends."

"As friends," Jason agreed with a smile. He bit his lip as he looked at my face. "Jeez, you look tired. You should get some sleep. Shadow travel really wears you out, huh?" I nodded.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'll go to sleep… See you tomorrow, Jason."

"See you!" And with that, I walked back to my cabin before plopping down on my bed and immediately passing out.

The next evening, Jason found me in the dining pavilion after dinner.

"Ready to see the show?" he asked, with that stupid smile of his. I nodded. I was actually really looking forward to seeing Hazel in the show. I walked with Jason to the amphitheater, which they had renovated a bit to make it into a more modern stage. We took seats in the third row and were soon joined by none other than Percy Jackson. "Hey guys!" He sat down next to me. "Ready to see the show? I'm so excited, Annabeth's gonna be great!" He leaned on me a bit, causing me to scoot away from him, red-faced, and over more towards Jason. "I haven't seen you in a while, Nico," Percy said, looking at me. "How's the Underworld?"

"Oh, you know, a little dark, a little gloomy, and as always, full of dead people," I said, apathetically. Jason laughed. Percy grinned as well. He suddenly looked somewhere behind me.

"Oh shit, guys, look," he said, pointing. Jason and I looked around. To our surprise, we saw mine and Jason's dad walking into the theater.

"Holy shit," I said, watching my father walk towards a seat near the back. He didn't seem to notice me.

"I guess they came to see Hazel and Thalia, huh?" Jason said, watching his father. I nodded. The rest of the audience soon filled in and the lights went out as the overture began to play. The curtain went up to reveal the set, which right now was a few beds, all in a row. I noticed the people that seemed to be sleeping in the beds. Suddenly one of them sat up and started crying. I recognised them to be Julia. Two of the others sat up as well, looking annoyed. Clarisse and Thalia! They shouted at Julia to be quiet, before being told to shush themselves by another girl. They then started arguing with the other girl when a fourth girl stood up and shouted at them to stop fighting unless they wanted 'Ms. Hannigan' to come up there. I grinned at my sister on the stage. I never knew she was such a good actress. I sat back, watching as the show unfolded. I hoped that Percy didn't realised that I was leaning against him…

After the show, I waited with the rest of the audience outside the amphitheater to congratulate Hazel and the rest of the cast when they came out. I felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see my father standing there, smiling a bit.

"Nico, did you know Hazel was that talented?" he asked. I shook my head.

"She's an amazing singer…" I stated. My father nodded.

"Say, Nico, whatever the next musical is, I think you should try out. I've heard singing can be an outlet for things like anger, sadness, heartache… Things like that. Besides, I'm sure Hazel would like it too.." I looked up at him.

"You think so? But I don't know if I'd even be good at acting." I knew that I was an okay singer, but I had never tried acting before.

"Just try out. It won't hurt to do that." He smiled at me- actually smiled. It was nice to see my father looking at me with such a happy expression. I nodded. I didn't know whether or not I would actually audition, but I might as well humour my dad.

A little while later, I was walking back to my cabin, one particular song stuck in my head.

"_Betcha' they're young, betcha' they're smart, bet they collect things like ashtrays and art. Betcha' they're good, why shouldn't they be? Their one mistake was giving up me… So maybe now it's time, or maybe when I wake, they'll be there calling me baby… Maybe…_" I thought about my own parents. My mother died years ago… Gods, I miss her. I wish she was still around, to comfort me in times of trouble.. But then again, I don't know how she'd react to certain… things about me. Then there was my father. He was still alive, and he talked to me sometimes like just now after the show, but most of the time he was busy with the Underworld or with Persephone and over all, he didn't really seem to pay much attention to me. I wished I had different parents. Like, I wish I had a mom like Percy's. I had met Sally Jackson. She was so caring, and she would love Percy no matter who or what he was. That's what a mother should be like. I don't even know how mine would have reacted to stuff. But I could tell that if I were Sally's son, she would love me no matter what. I sighed. "_So maybe now this prayer's the last one of its kind. Won't you please come get your baby… Maybe…_"


	2. Purpose

You know how I said I didn't know if I was actually going to audition for the next musical or not? Well, here I was. Auditioning for some ridiculous puppet show. What was it called again? Avenue Q, Sesame Street wannabe. At least, that's what I thought. I had no idea what the real nature of this show was until I looked it up and read the wikipedia page. Unfortunately, by the time I had done that, I had already promised Hazel that I would audition.

Apparently, 'Avenue Q' wasn't just some innocent puppet show. It was about a puppet named Princeton who moves into an apartment in New York and makes friends with the other people that live there- a girl puppet named Kate, some monster named Trekkie, a guy named Brian, his Japanese fiancee Christmas Eve, and these two guys named Rod and Nicky. Oh, and Rod was gay. I was gonna be so pissed if I got that role. Also, apparently someone named Gary Coleman was the superintendent? Apparently he was a celebrity back in like, the 90s or something. I don't know. Anyways, I had signed up to audition for this show, and was now reading over the music they had given me. For males, we had a choice between exerpts from three songs- Purpose (sung by Princeton), If You Were Gay (sung by Nicky), and I Am Not Wearing Underwear Today (sung by Brian). Well, I definitely wasn't going to sing If You Were Gay. And I also didn't really feel like singing about underwear, so I decided to go with Purpose instead. I was going over the song when Hazel entered the cabin, also holding music sheets.

"Hey, Nico!" she said, cheerily. I waved at her in response. "What are you singing for the audition?" she asked.

"Purpose," I replied. "What are the girls' options?" She rifled through her papers.

"Let's see. We have a choice between Special, There's a Fine, Fine, Line, and The More You Ruv Someone. I'm singing Fine Fine Line." She smiled. I nodded. From what I could remember from the wikipedia page, The More You Ruv someone was sung by Christmas Eve, There's a Fine, Fine, Line was sung by Kate, and Special was sung by a puppet named 'Lucy the Slut.' I had raised an eyebrow when I saw that name. Hazel began humming her song as I looked back at mine. Gods, I hoped I wouldn't fuck up this audition too badly…

And now there I was standing with Jason and Percy, waiting to audition. Apparently, after seeing Annie, they had decided to audition for Avenue Q as well.

"What song are you singing, Nico?" asked Jason.

"Purpose," I replied. "What about you guys?"

"Ah, I'm singing I'm Not Wearing Underwear Today," replied Percy with a chuckle.

"I'm singing If You Were Gay." Jason grinned at me. I glared at him. The doors soon opened and we went inside to see the auditioners, aka Dionysus and Aphrodite. Dionysus, being the god of theater, had directed Annie, but it was apparently extremely stressful, so he employed Aphrodite's help for this next one. This was sure to be interesting..

"Sit down, please, everyone," said Dionysus. We all sat down. "Now, when we are ready to begin, I will call on volunteers to go up and sing for us. If there are no volunteers, I will choose at random. Is that clear?" We nodded. "Alright, now may I have a volunteer?"

I was shaking a bit on the day that the cast list was supposed to go up. I didn't know which would be worse, not getting a part, or getting the part of Rod. That would be so embarrassing… I chewed on my lip as I made my way over to the amphitheater. I saw a crowd of people around the noticeboard and got increasingly nervous. When I approached, I looked over Hazel's head to see the cast list.

AVENUE Q CAST LIST

Brian - Dakota

Christmas Eve - Drew Tanaka

Gary Coleman - Hazel Levesque

Kate Monster - Piper McLean

Lucy the Slut - Annabeth Chase

Rod - Percy Jackson

Nicky - Jason Grace

Princeton - Nico di Angelo

Mrs. Thistletwat - Clarisse La Rue

Trekkie Monster - Leo Valdez

My eyes went to Nicky first. Jason. Shit.. If I ended up being Rod… I looked up at Rod's name, dreading whose name I would see beside it. Wait. Percy? Rod was…. Percy. Then where the fuck was I? Was I even on the list? I looked at the other male characters. Brian, no. Gary Coleman, no, that was Hazel. Huh, weird. Princeton… Holy shit. I was Princeton. How the fuck? Wasn't Princeton like, the main character? I heard laughter from behind me. I turned around to see Percy and Jason.

"Dude!" said Percy to Jason. "I totally have a crush on you!" I gritted my teeth. Jason chuckled a bit, though it was a little half-hearted.

"Yeah… Haha.." He smiled at Percy before looking at me. "Nico! You got Princeton!" He reached out for a high five. I blushed a bit and high-fived him, nodding.

"Yeah… I dunno how, though. I can't act very well," I said with a shrug. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Dude, you're an awesome actor. I saw you at auditions. You're a great singer, too!" This only made me blush harder. I mumbled a thanks before going off to find someplace quiet. Rehearsals were going to be quite interesting.

I was right. Rehearsals were interesting. Also Percy can play a gay character really well. I didn't know he was such a good actor. Watching him and Jason rehearse 'If You Were Gay' was actually pretty entertaining.

The director soon got me and Piper together to discuss what we would be doing. AKA, puppet sex. I was incredibly flustered about this. I was blushing the whole time Mr. D was talking about it. He said that with most youth programs, they cut out the puppet sex scene, but the majority of the cast was over 18, and he knew that everyone was mature enough to handle it. I knew that Gary Coleman was the one who sang 'You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want' though, and I wasn't sure how Hazel was going to do that without collapsing in a blushing mess. After all, her new role was much, much different from little orphan Annie.

After one of the rehearsals, I was walking back to the dining pavilion with Jason.

"Man, this is one of the only times I'm actually glad you don't like girls," he said, chuckling. I raised an eyebrow.

"And why is that?" I asked.

"Well." He shrugged. "If Percy were the one having puppet sex with my girlfriend, I'd be kinda pissed." I blushed again.

"Oh, shut up. It's not like I asked for the role."

"Well you did audition." He chuckled again. I sighed.

A few rehearsals later, I was laying in my bed at night, going over one of my songs.

"_Purpose. It's that little flame, that lights a fire under your ass. Purpose. It keeps you going strong, like a car with a full tank of gas. Everyone else has a purpose, so whats mine?_" What was my purpose? Being a demigod, I had always been in one battle after another, quest after quest. So I never really stopped to think about my purpose. Maybe Princeton was wrong. Maybe everyone didn't have a purpose. But if I did have a purpose… What would it be? Probably something stupid.. I sighed and rolled over before going to sleep.

It was the opening night of the show. I was waiting offstage left and I was incredibly nervous. Thanks to the Hephaestus cabin, the set looked amazing. It almost looked like an actual apartment block in New York. I looked over my script one more time before picking up my Princeton puppet and putting him on. I began warming up with him, saying things while moving Princeton as well. It was actually pretty hard to do, moving yourself and a puppet the exact same way at the exact same time. I gasped a bit as the lights went out and the orchestra began to play. This was it… This was when I was going to make a royal fool out of myself.

The show actually went pretty well. I messed up maybe once, and Piper covered for me so no one noticed. I was still blushing at the whole puppet sex thing, but Piper and I had decided a couple of weeks ago to just relax and have fun with it, because they were just puppets, and we were just friends anyways, so it didn't really matter. After the show, I put Princeton down in his spot backstage before going out to meet everyone who had come to see the show. I saw my dad and began walking towards him, feeling a warm feeling in my stomach. He had come to see us- me and Hazel. Hazel made it first and smiled up at our father. He smiled back, congratulating her on her performance. He then turned to me and smiled as well.

"You did wonderfully, Nico. I knew you would. I hope you'll audition for the next one?" I smiled a bit.

"I'll have to see what it is first. I'm not doing any more puppet sex." My father cleared his throat at this. It occurred to me that it was probably really awkward for him to watch his son onstage having puppet sex.

"Well, yes. But I have a feeling that the next show will be a bit more innocent," my father said.

"I hope so," I replied with a nod.


	3. Home

My dad was right. The next show was much, much more innocent. Now, we were doing Beauty and the Beast, which was a pretty big step away from Avenue Q. Not that anyone was complaining. A few months ago, Jason, Frank, and Piper sat me and Hazel down for a disney marathon. One of the movies we watched was Beauty and the Beast, which turned out to be one of my favourites (they also wanted to watch Snow White, but I had already seen it in a movie theater when I was 9, so). For this audition, there were only two songs per gender instead of three. For the boys, we got a choice between 'Gaston' and 'Be Our Guest'. For the girls, they got 'Home' or 'Beauty and the Beast'. I didn't particularly feel like learning a French accent, so I chose to learn 'Gaston' as my song.

Everyone knew who was going to be Belle by the time auditions were over. Annabeth's performance of 'Home' was stunning, and her personality even fit the character perfectly. Somehow though, I didn't think Percy was going to get to be the Beast. I think Jason fit that role better, anyways. Maybe Percy would end up being Gaston?

I was wrong. Jason wasn't the Beast. Percy wasn't Gaston. However, I was right in guessing that Annabeth would be Belle. But I really wasn't expecting the role that I got. I looked at the cast list, extremely bemused at some of the casting choices.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST CAST LIST

Belle - Annabeth Chase

Beast - Frank Zhang

Gaston - Jason Grace

Le Fou - Nico di Angelo

Lumiere - Leo Valdez

Cogsworth - Percy Jackson

Mrs. Potts - Piper McLean

Chip - Hazel Levesque

Yep, I was Le Fou, that guy that always followed around Gaston. And Gaston was Jason. I was going to be following around Jason for the whole show. I was dreading it already. Percy was Cogsworth. It was going to be funny to see him trying to put on a British accent. But back to the point. I didn't particularly like Le Fou. I was supposed to play an idiot! Ugh. I would have rather had Hazel's part, Chip. Hell, I would rather have been Lumiere. But then again, I _did_ sing 'Gaston' for my audition, the song that Le Fou sings. I sighed. Whatever. I decided I would try to have fun with it, just like I did with Avenue Q. From behind me I heard singing.

"_No one's slick as Gaston, no one's quick as Gaston!_" I turned around. Jason was laughing as he sang his song. I walked over to him, irritated.

"_No one's head is incredibly thick as Gaston's,_" I sang back. I changed the lyrics a little bit to make them more appropriate for Jason. Jason chuckled.

"Dude, I am so pumped about this role. This is gonna be so fun!" He grinned. I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, Nico! You get to sing an awesome song about how amazing I am." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"_No one quits like Gaston, or eats shit like Gaston. No one blunders around like a twit like Gaston._" Piper heard the lyrics that I had made up and laughed. Jason blushed but laughed as well.

"You should ask Mr. D if you can rewrite the song." He chuckled.

As it turned out, Le Fou wasn't really my only role. 'Be Our Guest' was actually a full cast number, so they put me in a marshmallow costume (which I did not appreciate very much). Jason came up to me on the first day I was wearing it and chuckled.

"Nico, you're adorable." I turned scarlet.

"I'm not adorable! I'm a fucking marshmallow!" I glowered at him.

"I know! It's so cute! Can I hug you?" Jason smiled. I began to protest, but it was too late. Jason's arms were around me, engulfing my marshmallow self into his warmth. He was so goddamn irritating. I huffed when he pulled away.

"I may look ridiculous, but I don't look nearly as stupid as you." Jason turned as red as the ketchup bottle he was wearing. I chuckled. If anything was adorable, that was. … Wait, what? Never mind. "A-Anyways, I gotta go. Aphrodite just called places." Jason smiled at me and I left to go to stage right. Why was my heart beating so fast?

"_Is this home? Is this where I should learn to be happy? Never dreamed that a home could be dark and cold. I was told, every day in my childhood, even when we grow old, home will be where the heart is, never were words so true. My heart's far, far away. Home is too._" Where was my home? It didn't feel like it was at Camp Jupiter. I had a rank and a title here, but that was all. It wasn't in the Underworld. That's just where I went when I didn't really have anywhere else to go. Was it at Camp Half-Blood? That was the last place me and Bianca were together.. So maybe. "_Is this home? Am I here for a day or forever? Shut away, from the world until who knows when. Oh, but then, as my life has been altered once, it can change again. Build higher walls around me, change every lock and key. Nothing lasts, nothing holds, all of me. My heart's far, far away, home and free…_"

I tripped. I can't believe I fucking tripped. During the show. Gods dammit. I can only be thankful that I was playing Le Fou, and it was in-character for him to trip. Otherwise, I would have been so fucked. Oh gods, that was embarrassing. I nearly made Jason crack up onstage. It was during 'Gaston,' too! I was fuming after the show. I couldn't believe I had fucking tripped. Jason came up and clapped me on the shoulder.

"You were great, Nico!" He grinned.

"I tripped," I muttered, scowling.

"Yeah, so?" Jason shrugged. "It was funny! And it was in-character, so everybody thought you did it on purpose." I huffed. Whatever. It was still embarrassing. "Hey.." Jason put a hand on my back and rubbed a bit, comfortingly. Somehow, I didn't mind. "At least you didn't have to wear a ketchup bottle…" I'll have to admit, that made me chuckle a bit.

"Yeah, I guess…" I looked up at Jason. I was actually kinda grateful to have a friend like him. "You know.. I think I'm gonna take a break from the spring show. I'll audition again in the summer." I shrugged. Jason nodded.

"Yeah, I think I'll do the same… Are you gonna go back to the Underworld though?" he asked.

"Probably.." I replied. Jason frowned.

"You know, I'm gonna be staying at Camp Jupiter for a while, to help Reyna and Frank. You could stay there, if you want…" I looked up at him. He seemed sincere about it.

"I… I'll think about it." I shrugged again. "But we're definitely gonna see the show, even if we're not in it." Jason grinned.

"Definitely."


End file.
